We have the original hand made prototype of the Mark II 20th Anniversary
knife made by Gerber. My husband made it. None other like it anywhere. He
and two other guys were the only ones to hand produce the 5000 knives for
the anniversary.
The history is that my husband, Dale, was in the Fall 1985 Blade Magazine
featured making a Frisco Shiv for a government agency that will remain
unnamed but let's just say it's abbreviation is three letters (of course
this was never revealed to anyone). From that, he was asked to make the
prototype of the 20th anniversary Mark II.
He didn't keep the prototype, it was placed in a safe there at Gerber and
in 1989, he went to work for a knife company in Alabama. Before he left,
his supervisor gave him the prototype but the knife and its sheath were
wrapped and not in a display box. He returned to Gerber in 1991 and
eventually found a good box for it but it is in the 35th anniversary (2001)
box. He left Gerber in 2004 (of course, it wasn't Gerber anymore, Gerber
was earlier bought out by Fiskars). So what he did was place an MVP card of
Joseph R. 'Pete' Gerber, Jr. in the box and it's remained ever since, never
used.
The photographs will show all that. That's basically it. He keeps coming up
w/more info. He started with Gerber when he was 21 and worked there from
1980 to 1989 and then 1991 to 2004. He's 49 now.